Students from 32 Pennsylvania high schools soon will test their technical know-how with emissions-free electric vehicles.

They will participate in the fourth annual electric go-cart competition at the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Cumberland County from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday (5/15). Friday (5/16) is the rain date.

Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. and GPU Energy are the primary sponsors of the event, which is free and open to the public.

"The event is competitive, but more importantly it promotes team spirit and cooperative learning," said Larry Sparta, director of Education Relations for PP&L. "We are teaching the students to work with others to achieve a common goal."

In January, each participating school received a go-cart chassis donated by its local electric utility. To prepare themselves for working with zero-emission vehicles and to challenge their technical skills, the students had to build go-carts that could run on electricity from commercially available lead-acid batteries, instead of gasoline- powered engines. Creativity was an active ingredient along with a set of safety specifications, including go-cart size, weight, brakes, tires, properly covered drive devices, roll bars, seat belts and shoulder harnesses.

The teams will be judged and awarded points in the following four categories:

• Safety, quality and design
• Oral presentation
• Acceleration
• Endurance

First-, second- and third-place finishers in each of the four categories will receive trophies. The overall winner of the competition also will receive a trophy.

All participating teams will receive a plaque from the sponsoring utilities.